Library & Literary Miscellany

Here we go again with Library & Literary Miscellany links from this week…

Library

• The Actionable Blog by David Lee King speaks to the idea of intentionally creating content enabling/requiring action (his example of an actionable blog that requires action is his library’s posts titled “What’s in Your Top 5?” where the library begins the conversation and then patrons add their own ideas)
• Information Overload: the Problem (Part 1) and Information Overload: What Can We Do (Part 2) by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb
• More libraries using delicious by mélange: Angela has added to her libraries using del.icio.us list; the list links to numerous library-created Del.icio.us accounts, thus, providing examples of ways Del.icio.us has been used (and perhaps stimulating ideas for how it can be used in the future) in a library setting to enhance library services and guides
• On the Information Experience: An ALA TechSource Conversation with John Blyberg by Michael Stephens: discusses Blyberg’s Library 2.0 Debased article from months back and delves further into these ideas (particularly interesting is the notion of hiring 51% employees–49 % skills, 51% intrinsic desire to serve and to create fulfilling customer experiences)

Literary

• 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature: announced June 18, 2008 for the categories of Fiction and Poetry (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney), Picture Book (At Night by Jonathan Bean), Nonfiction (The Wall by Peter Sís), with a Special Citation (The Arrival by Shaun Tan); click the link to view the honor books as well
• 2009 Newbery and Caldecott Predictions - Halfway Mark by Fuse News where Elizabeth Bird moves beyond 2008 awards to offer her ideas regarding the best Newbery & Caldecott eligible titles of the year so far (from all that I’ve heard The Underneath by Kathi Appelt must have quite a shot at the Newbery. I’m quite looking forward to reading it)
• 12th Bookworms Carnival: posted over at Things Mean a Lot this is a wonderful summation of a bunch of posts about the month’s theme–fairy tales (the next theme is relationships for those who are interested in submitting posts to be included submit posts via her contact page by July 11 to Jenn at Mixed Metaphor)
• Great Early Elementary Reads: The Association for Library to Children (ALSC) bibliography Great Early Elementary Reads, features recommended book titles for children who are just learning to read and beginning to read on their own (featured in American Libraries Direct this week)
• What’s the Deal with all these mice? by Library Voice with a follow-up over at Lisa Chellman’s blog with a post entitled Mice Are Nice: these are library and literary really since they pertain to patron interaction and children’s literature; you may find yourself able to relate to the first post and you may also find some nice mice reading recommendations in the latter post
• YA is Awesome: post over at YA Fabulous! with links to a great many recent  reviews of YA books from across the kidlit blogosphere

Miscellany

• 4+ Ways to Quickly Create Excellent Presentations Online by Corvida over at ReadWriteWeb; the post discusses Zoho Show, Google Docs, 280 Slides, and SlideRocket (with brief mention of reZentit, Empressr, and Preezo).
• Boston Globe: How to Nap (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• Totlol: provides access to the kid-friendly YouTube content while omitting the rest (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• College@home: 57 Useful Google Tools You’ve Never Heard Of and 100 Useful Niche Search Engines You’ve Never Heard Of
• Thing 62: PDF Form-Topia: PDFEscape.com at Learning 2.1: Explore…Discover…Play–discusses PDFEscape as a useful tool for filling out locked PDFs (e.g., for a job applicaton)
• Zoomii.com - The “Real” Online Bookstore: Zoomii presents Amazon books on shelves as if viewing books in a real bookstore. The mouse zooms in/out and left/right to peruse different shelves.

Does anyone have any thoughts on any of the above or anything else you’d like to share that you found to be useful/interesting/worth passing on this week?

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